51s' Montero stymies 'Birds

Memphis held to 4 hits in loss

Hot prospect Michael Wacha has already tasted the future with the St. Louis Cardinals. But Sunday night, he was bettered by an arm equally prized by the New York Mets, as Rafael Montero dominated in the Las Vegas 51s' 4-2 decision over the Memphis Redbirds before 8,015 at AutoZone Park.

Montero, a 22-year-old Dominican international signee, started in the MLB Futures Game that kicked off All-Star Week at his future home, Citi Field. Sunday, he turned in his longest outing of the year, giving up just four hits and one run in eight innings. The Mets' 2012 minor league pitcher of the year went 7-3 at Double-A Binghamton and is 3-3 in the PCL with a 3.88 ERA.

After giving up a first-inning single to Ryan Jackson, Montero retired 18 straight Redbirds. The Mets' fifth-ranked prospect (Baseball America) struck out just four but gave up no walks for the first time in four starts and had Memphis hitters lofting harmless pop-ups all game.

"Nobody was talking like he was unhittable, but he was locating the ball well and we just weren't making good contact," said Redbirds second baseman Kolten Wong, who broke the string with a seventh-inning double and scored on an infield hit by Greg Garcia.

After Garcia's hit, and a single by Justin Christian, Montero kept looking at his dugout expecting manager Wally Backman to bring the hook. No hook, no problem.

"He wasn't struggling, he was on his pitch count and no sense bringing him out," said Backman, whose team broke an 0-5 skid on its current Tennessee trip. "He has a good change-up, and his slider is a work in progress. But that's as good a command of the fastball as he's had here, and it set everything else up. And I've seen enough of Wacha to know there were two quality pitchers tonight."

Wacha (5-3) dominated the first three innings, giving up one single and striking out five, including four of the first five batters. But the second time around, third baseman Wilmer Flores popped his 15th homer of the season with one out in the fourth. Jordany Valdespin and Zach Lutz, who like Flores struck out the first time, followed with a single and a double to make it 2-0. Matt den Dekker's single drove in Lutz to make it 3-0.

"A couple of pitches you'd like to have back, but you work through it," said Wacha, who gave up just one more hit through six innings.

In the ninth, Wong had a leadoff single off 51s reliever Greg Burke and scored on a hit by Garcia off closer Rob Carson, who then struck out Christian for his eighth save.

The 51s added a ninth-inning run on a bases-loaded hit batsmen by Victor Marte, who then struck out the next two batters to end the threat.